Embodiments of the inventive concept relate to integrated circuits, and more particularly to application processors capable of sharing a resource based on an image resolution. Other embodiments of the inventive concept relate to devices including such application processors.
Many contemporary displays are capable of displaying images in more than one resolution. The possibility of receiving image data defined according to different resolutions places increased processing burdens upon processors in image processing systems. The size of image data is a function of resolution, and as resolutions have become greater, the performance and bandwidth provided by a display have become increasingly important. Greater resolution of the constituent display increases power consumption. In order to reduce the power consumption, the use of memory-to-memory transfer operations has increased.
In order to scale-down an image through an on-the fly operation, a competent scaler must read a large amount of data at a fixed data rate from memory, and then scale (up or down) the data. A scale-down ratio for the scaler may be restricted based on internal throughput of a scaler. When the internal throughput of a scaler is increased to increase the scale-down ratio, the resulting layout area of the scaler is increased. Accordingly, manufacturing costs associated with the scaler and/or an application processor incorporating the scaler are increased.